Exercise Is For More Than Just Losing Weight. Hard Facts About Weight loss, Portion Control & Exercise. Personal Training.

As I surf around the web and read other blogs, I'm noticing that there are a lot of people out there struggling to lose weight, stick to an exercise plan and/or get healthy. They are blogging about their trials and tribulations, and it seems that I see a trend of exercise getting a bad rep.

It is true, that if you begin an exercise program you become more hungry and many people actually begin to increase their caloric intake. Sometimes this even leads to weight gain. The formula is very simple: Calories In vs Calories Out. If you start exercising and then you start consuming more food, you will not lose any weight from exercising. You will, however, lower your blood pressure, lower your resting heart rate, lower your risk of disease, increase oxygenation to your blood, increase your muscle strength & endurance, increase your bone density, increase serotonin & melatonin in your body as well as usually you will become more emotionally happy.

One of my favorite blogs is The French Skinny Experiment. My friend Karen is one of the co-bloggers and I think she is a wonderfully funny writer and a great photographer. She has really embraced portion control and it has worked beautifully for her. She has become accustomed to very small portions. While I don't feel that this it at all a risk to her health because she eats primarily healthy choices, I do think that it isn't realistic amounts of food for most people let alone most Americans. Regular exercise would allow a person to intake a little larger portion and provide all of the benefits I listed above.

I should mention that in the blog they are both very active women, so this provides daily cardio. If one can manage to find time to walk to the store and walk to the park and play actively with their children for many hours a day then your cardio needs will most likely be fulfilled. However, I think we are not always situated in areas or with lives that allow for walking to the store. With this in mind, you do need to get cardio exercise daily for more reasons than weight loss.

Heart Disease is still the number one killer of women in America today. Cardiovascular exercise builds the heart muscle the way that lifting a weight builds a bicep or any other muscle. With the heart muscle stronger it allows the blood pressure to slow down. The heart can more efficiently pump out a larger amount of blood that can travel through the blood stream slower before another push is needed by the heart. Basically, the heart has more time to relax and lasts longer. It doesn't have to work so hard.

Obesity is now becoming the leading killer of Americans in general. With portion control, obesity can be combated for sure. However, when many people just go on portion control only with no guidance, they often just portion control the horrible "food impostors" they have been eating all along. It is very important when doing portion control to give the body healthy food so that it can absorb the nutrients and not keep telling the brain that it is hungry. See if the body doesn't get the nutrients it needs, it will just keep telling you its hungry. Many people than fail with their portion control. This is the sad fact why when eating junk food people can eat and eat often without feeling full. The brain is just taking in the pleasure without the body getting nutrients.

To sum it all up, even when portion control is successful for weight loss, the body still needs the exercise. I once heard a saying "A great diet can never make up for not exercising." There are so many other benefits that come from exercise that it is still necessary to get it in. If there is not a weight issue, half an hour to an hour 4 to 7 days a week will do to keep your bones strong and your heart healthy. Even thin people who eat well often suffer from osteoporosis and high blood pressure and/or cholesterol.

Ciao,
Laura Fortino
Bella Body & Mind of Huntington Beach
http://www.bellabodyandmind.com

How To Get A Man To Respect You - Life Coaching

Love and respect should go hand in hand. He's suppose to love you and you are suppose to respect him. However, too many women aren't finding love because they haven't found self-respect. This is one of the keys to getting a man to respect your feelings and you as a person so that he can fall in love with you and get past the stafe of lust or infatuation.

Treat Yourself With Respect, Love & Kindness
Do not make choices that are disrespectful to the life you want and who you want to be. You can't get love without giving love and knowing how to love, therefore, the only way to get respect from someone is to respect yourself.

Be Yourself
When you can be true to yourself and not try to act the way you think a man wants you to act, you will find a man who loves you for who you are. If you try to be something you're not, others can sense it. They feel the lack of security you have in yourself and then they can't really trust you, love you or respect you because they don't know you.

Dont Sleep With Him To Soon
Men Don't fall in love easily, They fall in lust. If you sleep with a man before he has had a chance to fall in love with you, chances are he may just move on because he got what he came for. Take some time. Get to know him and see if he and you are looking for the same things. You don't want to feel attached to someone who ultimately never wants the same things in life as you.

Don't Send The Wrong Message
If you want a relationship, Don't behave in ways that say you are just looking for sex.

Do Not Tolerate Disrespect
Don't tolerate disrespect from him, firends or your family. Be loving to yourself and when you are disrespected by others kindly remove yourself from that situation or tell that person that their behavior is hurtful and disrespectful and you are going to leave if it continues, and definitely follow through. If a man see's that his friends or yours or even your family disrespect you, then he will feel he can too.

Never Lie
A man can not respect you if he can not trust you. Honesty and integrity are keys to respect.

Understand The Power Of Your Words
Don't underestimate what you say. According to Dr. Emerson Eggerichs who wrote the book "Love & Respect" men feel contempt when they are criticized and they feel disrespected. Therefore, they can not respect you in return. Women's criticisms can crush men. Our words have a lot of power and we must be careful with them.

Don't Chase Him
Today it is OK to ask a man out, but remember, ultimately men will come after who they want. They don't need you to chase them. If a man is showing a lack of interest and you are chasing him down, he will not respect you. If he isn't doing any pursuing, he is not interested in you. He may like you enough to sleep with you on occasion but he is not going to respect or love you. If he isn't interested, try not to take it personally and move on to a man that is.

Don't Use Sex As A Tool
Once you get to the part of the relationship where you are physically intimate, never use sex to get what you want or to get back at him, and never bargain with sex. He will be confused and definitely will not respect you and your feelings.

Listen To Him
Try to understand his point of view instead of just jumping in with yours and try to listen without thinking about what you want to say next. Allow him to feel heard and respected so that he can do the same for you.



Ciao,
Laura Fortino
Bella Body & Mind of Huntington Beach
http://www.bellabodyandmind.com

Yoga or Pilates Balls for Stress Relief in Personal Training and At Home

Pilates or Yoga balls can be usefull in the relief of stress, however, there are two different types of Yoga balls and they are used very differently to releive stress. The first type of balls we will talk about are more commonly known as Swiss balls, exercise balls or fitness balls. They were invented in Italy in 1963 by Aquilino Cosani as a toy. He called them Gymnastik. An English doctor, Dr Elseth Kong and a physical therapist named Mary Quinton began using them for pediatric for pediatric neurological rehab programs. When Swiss physical therapist Dr. Susan Klein-Vogelbach, began using them for back rehabilitation and orthopaedic rehabilitation in Switzerland. In the 1980's American physical therapists brought them back to America and in the 1990's they moved into athletic and fitness training settings. They are larger in size and can be used in many different exercises, especially core stabilizing exercises.

The second type of balls that are sometimes called Yoga balls are the smaller massage balls. One popularly known brand is Acuball. Acuball was developed by Dr. Michael A Cohen,Chiropractor. Acuballs are small with rubber protuberances and they can be heated. Another well known brand is The Miracle Ball developed by Elaine Petrone, teacher, speaker and author in pain and stress management. The Miracle Ball is squishy, soft and smooth. They are also heatable.

These smaller balls are used for muscle relaxation, pressure point work and toxin release from the muscle through pressure and heat stimulation.

Stress is thought to be one of the most common causes of illness. One definition of stress in Miriam Webster's disctionary is: A physical, chemical or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation. Stress can result from either internal or external factors. Internal factors being those that are emotional in nature and external being things such as job, shcool, home relationships etc. Proper stress management involves reducing or controlling tension or stress in stressful situations by making emotional and physical changes.

When something internal or external causes a stress reaction, our body goes into fight or flight and releases the hormone Cortisol. Cortisol is a necessary hormone for our body and small amounts provide good side effects such as a quick release of adrenaline to help in stressful or frightening situations, lower sensitivity to pain, increased memory function, increased immunity and it helps our bodies maintain homeostasis. However, too much Cortisol, like too much of anything, can be bad. When our bodies feel stress and release Cortisol, we also need to be able to enter the opposite side of the stress which is relaxation. However, in today's society, with all the pressures we face, it is often hard to enter into relaxation.

Exercise is a great way for peple to release tension and get rid of stress. Exercise itself does release Cortisol for use in the exercises, however, the overall effect of exercise is one of lessened stress and tension. Exercise balls can be used for physically challengin exercises that will increase muscle strengthe and development while lowering your overall stress level. They can also be used to do Yoga moves such as Upward Facing Dog, Down Dog, Seated Stork, Warrior I, II & III, Childs Pose and others. Doing Yoga on the ball causes relaxation. The deep breathing and stretching through the movements will bring about relaxation of the mind and body.

Another great way to relieve stress is through physical and mental relaxation of massage. Massage, heat and pressure relax muscles and release built up toxins such as lactic acid and others. Even excess stress hormones can settle in the muscles and joints and massage can flush them out. With the smaller massage balls you can stimulate, massage and heat your own muscles by placing the ball under the tense or pained muscle and using your own body weight you can massage and stretch the muscle through slow relaxing resting pressure, rocking, rolling and rotating on the ball.

So in conclusion, yes fitness balls, massage balls, Swiss balls, or Yoga or Pilates on the ball. All of it can relieve stress.

Ciao,Laura FortinoBella Body & Mind of Huntington Beachhttp://www.bellabodyandmind.com/

New Huntington Beach Personal Trainer-Lindsey Newton. Get 4 free sessions

Hey everybody, Bella Body and Mind is expanding. We are now offering personal spinning instruction as well as marathon training by Jeff Miller. Jeff is an avid runner & cyclist as well as a sports writer for the Orange County Register. Jeff is joining the team at Bella Body and Mind to bring his special abilities to our clients.

Also, I would like to introduce our newest member at Bella Body and Mind, Lindsey Newton. Lindsey is an avid sports fan and fitness buff. She has played sports and worked out since she was a child and she is now a certified personal trainer. She is joining our staff this month and I would like to welcome her and welcome you to take advantage of a free personal training session with her. Both Jeff and Lindsey will be joining me in contributing to this blog, so make sure you follow us to get great motivational articles, tips on working out, special offers and more.

Just contact us at 714-315-1932 and mention this blog or our website to receive a fress session. The first 10 people to call will receive 4 free sessions and a free two or 1 month trial membership at Fitness Addiction in Huntington Beach.

In Much Abundance

Laura Fortino

Owner Bella Body and Mind

Ciao,Laura FortinoBella Body & Mind of Huntington Beachhttp://www.bellabodyandmind.com/

I don't have an hour a day to work out.

I was watching Good Morning America the other day and they had a segment in which they quoted a new Harvard study of 34,000 women showing that in order to maintain your current body weight you need 1 hour a day of moderate exercise. This new study revises older data such as the American Heart Association's recommendation of 30 minutes a day for people 18 to 65.

"An hour a day?!" you say and I say "Yes, of course." For someone like me, I don't see this as an issue. I find that not only does my body look better from exercise, but I feel better & I seem to be healthier than most women my age. Also, the emotional stability I received from the seratonin release and the stress relief I get is so much worth that time, as well as the fact that they have proven in studies that exercise boosts your brain power!!! How could I not devote an hour a day, and how can you not?

As I mention this new study to my friend who is complaining about her husband having to take pills for his cholesterol and their admitted lack of energy, she responds with "Who has an hour a day to exercise." As I state this to another friend and client who also has too many health issues for someone in her forties, I hear that she feels guilty carving out just an hour a week to exercise. This is crazy talk I say. (easy for me to say, the trainer who works out for her job.) Would you rather be dead 24hours a day or work out 1 hour a day I ask. They fumble for feeble excuses. The bottom line is that you must if you want to live a fruitful older life or even if you want to live a little longer. I don't see how an hour a day for ouselves is too much.

We all have heard that on an airplane they ask us to place our mask on first before placing the mask over our children. This is because we need to be alive to assist our children. The same goes for our health. We must be alive & healthy so that we are here for our children and also so that we are not a burden to them as sickly parents they must take care of. So, if we know that as parents or even partners to loved ones we must take care of our emtional tanks first & our physical health first so that we can give to others , then it is absolutely necessary to carve out some time EACH day for our mental, physical & emotional health. Otherwise we are operating on fumes and have nothing to give except snappy answers and disconnected chatter to those we love.

Ciao,
Laura Fortino
Bella Body & Mind of Huntington Beach
http://www.bellabodyandmind.com/

Vision

You must have a Vision first in order to have the life you want. If you can not envision yourself healthy, envision yourself thin or happy or whatever it is you want, then you can not obtain. So I am here to say today: Create your vision!





Once you have that vision, document it. That is what I do everyday as a life coach, as a trainer or as a diet planner. I help people find their vision and I help people bring their vision to fruition.

I have specials going on all the time. Combine personal training with pilates or one of these with life coaching and really see your results. Now is the time to call, don't delay. Start moving toward your vision today with my help.




























Ciao,
Laura Fortino
Bella Body & Mind of Huntington Beach
http://www.bellabodyandmind.com/

Buddy-up This Year and Be Successful

Starting something new and creating a new behavior or habit from it can be very difficult. Often an idea can spark you to move, but keeping on track is a whole other beast!!
New behaviors require not only action, but also continued thought change. The reason you weren't doing it before was because of your thoughts about it. For instance if you have an attitude of dislike toward working out, then if you start, you will find all sorts of reasons (thoughts) to help back-up your position of why you shouldn't go.
Of course, hiring a professional trainer can help you have a scheduled time to go giving you reason to be there, and we can also help you with accountability. However, if you add one or two friends into the mix, you can increase your chances of staying with it.
On days when you just don't feel like going, there will be someone to encourage you other than your trainer. You might feel worse cancelling on a friend than just a hired trainer and hopefully when your down, your friend will be up and pull you along. Also, buddy training makes training so much more affordable and yet you are still getting a great education & support system from your trainer. You will feel special having such a thing in your life and you will really create a lasting bond with your friend (or family member). So don't delay, get started today with a friend.


Ciao,
Laura Fortino
Bella Body & Mind of Huntington Beach
http://www.bellabodyandmind.com/